Improvement in calking vessels



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. Speciication forming part of Letters Patent No. 170,139, dated November 16, 1875; application filed November 4,1874.

4ternal protection or a containing-vessel, with longitudinal gi'ooves, so as that when .the

planks are laid in place a duct is for-med, into which ibrous material is tightly driven, and subsequently saturated with any substance repellent of moisture, or iitted to till permanently the capillarycavities;and the object is the-production of a weather-proof and liquid-proof external covering to the holds of ships, to railroadcars, and houses, &c.

Ihe gure is a view, in perspective, ot` my device.

In the drawing, A A are two narrow pieces of board or plank, which would be called, if the representation be considered that of part of a house-roof, the jack-rafters. B B B B are four pieces of board, representing the covering portion of a roof or of a railroad-car, or the side, bottom, or top of a vat or tank. These pieces B, Sto., are provided with grooves on their longitudinal edges, so as that when the planks are-put together a duct is formed, the gure represented by whose vertical section is of a bulbous shape.

`I prefer this shape, as it presents no lower corners, diiiicultfor the fibrous packing to reach, and the inclination of the sides above also allows the ready4 passage of the packing material into the cavity.

The grooves C C are filled with fibrous material, preferably cotton-waste, though I do not confine myself to any particular brous material., rlhese fibers are driven in with a calkers tool and mallet, in the usual manner of calking, and are subsequently payed77 or saturated with boiled linseed-oil, mixed with White lead, or With any mineral pigment, or with other suitable substance.

I do not confine myself to any particular material for paying, and sometimes I omit the paying altogether.

In calking oil-tanks I prefer' to calk from the inside, and to pay the seams with glue. Previous to calking I separate the seams at the top, so as to admit the placing of the fibrous packing by inserting in the duct, at one end, the point of a flattened hook, whose concave edge is sharpened, and then drawing the hook between the edges of the two planks tothe otherend. This process compresses the bers of the Wood at that part, and, after the seam is calked and payed, the first rain falling or, other moisture applied swells these compressed edges, so that they join again, thus keeping the packing in, and, by closing the crack, adding to the imperviousness of the roof.

With the ordinary mode of preparing plank or boards for calking with a smooth plane edge, this swelling ofthe wood and restoratiomF ofthe same to its normal state does not occur, as the packing prevents it.

Furthermore, the vertical section ot' a fragment of calking, when the edges of the planks are at right angles to the surface, presents the form of a wedge, and the warping' by the suns rays of the planks is apt to force the packing up. The subsequent straightening by contraction of the plank restores the plank to its former condition; but the wedge of packing is not so restored, being frequently let't raised up, when the rain enters beneath it, when a houseroof is in question,and the calking is inefcacious. l

The middle groove in the drawing is separated withv the tool (and prepared for the reception of the packing) in part, beginning at the point I) and going to thelineal center; the rest of the groove, beginning at the point E and going to the lineal center of the groove, being unseparated, showing the appearance when the planks are first put together, and also when the access of moisture has restored the woody fibers to their normal condition.

I find in my mode of calking the advantages of tightness, cheapness, imperviousness, and durability, which qualities are shown in its application to vats, tanks, cisterns, tops PAT'EN'roFFmE-W N anflfsides of ,railroadcars, roofs and sides of thebrous packing, when the sides of the formed aqueducts, &c. Y I do not claim, broadly, the combination of grooved edges and fibrous packing; nor do I claimforming the groove so as that the interspaces between the planks shall be greatest intermediate the Weather and inner edges of said planks; but v I claim- The combination of the grooved edges and houses', decks and hulls, sides 0l' Wooden stavegroove are cut so as to form an acute angle, or nearly so, with the surface of the board or plank, and to meet When the planks are in place, all when constructed and arranged substantially as described. y

JOHN TISDALE WHITE.

Witnesses:

LEMUEL P. JENKs, JEROME DAVIS. 

